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Going Deep: STEM in the Connected Classroom

Posted by Brian Crosby on Mar 15, 2013 in Connecting with the Common Core, STEMIrning ThHo’N of 2lstCentLlrvTeachl Voices I 29 comrnnts

“Everybody in this room understands that our nation’s success depends onstrengthening America’s role as the world’s engine of discovery and innovation,And that leadership tomorrow depends on how we educate our studentstoday—especially in science, technology, engineering, and math.” PresidentObama to a gathering of CEOs, scientists, teachers, and others. September 16,2010

-.v1y timing is impeccable! I took the job as STEM education facilitator forsix counties in my state just when this STEM thing is getting lots of attention. Even thepresident has been talking it up.

I’d have to confess though that this attention also worries me. I’ve been to conferenceswhere everything on the vendor floor displays a sticker announcing how — whatever it is— it’s “aligned to the Common Core State Standards and STEM!” I’ve even visited a schoolthat claims it is a “STEM Academy” because (it brags) teachers are mandated to do at least15 minutes of science EACH DAY!

If any of this sounds familiar, it’s the same approach and attitude that led to technologygetting a shady reputation in education. Another “big idea” that is inevitably reduced to asubject or activity — something teachers must spend another chunk of precious class timeon. It’s typical education “reform.” Instead, what we need to do is transform. STEM, doneright, can help make that happen.

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) is not a separate subject, andyou don’t “do” STEM just by doing any one of its pieces. One of the reasons I took mycurrent position was that I recognized that STEM education has promise in leading us awayfrom each subject only having a singular focus — its own chunk of time in the schedule.

STEM demands that we teach lessons and pursue projects that connect all the subjectsrepresented in its acronym. In this day of narrowed curriculum, that is a very importantdistinction!

The STEM connection

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how does STEM education differ, and what does it have to do withthe special focus ofthis PLP group blog — connected learning? One wayto think aboutSTEM is in the context ofthat desirable learning strategy we hear about now and again:takingthe time togo deep.”One ofthe big complaints about NCLB “reform” has been thenarrow “surface” learning its accountability mechanisms have produced as a byproduct.STEM provides indepth experiences that students share and can therefore discuss, explainand argue about.

A STEM unit often starts offwith a science activitythat introduces the concept and leads tothe initial research. Besides library books and internet searches, that research should nowinclude communicating with experts. Email, blogs, chats, video-conferencing and othersocial networking tools and strategies not only add to the learning by involving advisorsand collaborators, but teach students how being connected should be part of their learningprocess.

In addition, a true STEM experience involves the “E” — Engineering. Students should bebuilding something or improving a design. Solving a problem through building andimproving involves trials and testing things out. In other words, collecting data, the “M” ormath component of STEM. By analyzing performance data, students can make adjustmentsto their design — quantifying what is really best or most efficient.

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tudents working in small groups will learn as theynote differences in design and efficiency between their creation and those of other groupsin the room. And we can up the “connected learninS’ factor by having them partner withpeers beyond the room students anywhere in the world who are working on the sameor a similar activity.

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Taking it one step further: what if the groups our students are working in include studentsin other locations? What if the groups in my class in Nevada have virtual members who arein British Columbia or Scotland or India?

Now the challenge of STEM collaboration takes on new dimensions ... staying incommunication across time zones, being responsible for getting your part done, being ableto share your learning in a way that is understandable to students in different contexts andcultures. Will connected teams use blogs? wikis? email? Google groups? Dropbox? Livemeeting spaces? Weighing the advantages and disadvantages of various combinations ofvirtual partnering is all part of the learning.

Now imagine connecting with an expert in the field you are working in... asking questions,sharing insights, getting tips on design, learning from their experience. All thisconnectedness can be a huge asset; done well, it can become a vital and very sticky” partof the learning.

Expanding STEM across the curriculum

As the overall project continues, the potential connections afford many opportunities tovocalize and clarify thinking, as well as the motivation to do quality work because you haveauthentic audiences. The writing and communications work should also be deep. This caninvolve creative writing and sharing experiences through stories, poetry, music, video, artof various kinds (STEAM!), and more.

3lending STEM with “connected classroom”strategies is a powerful learning model a highly actIve learning model. For this to workwell in schools, however, we have to have innovative thinking, teacher autonomy andflexibility in scheduling. These essential components of”going deep” with teaching andlearning have been eroded away in the last decade. If if we are truly going to integrate andembrace STEM education and innovation, we will have to revive them.

The possibilities of authentic, globally connected STEM projects that flatten curriculumwalls, engage students through curiosity, and ignite their natural desire to solvechallenging, worthwhile problems is why I am personally promoting the STEM concept. Isee it as a way to bypass the most misguided aspects of current “reform” movements whilepromoting — even requiring — critical and creative thinking and true innovation.

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About the author

Brian Crosby is a 30-year veteran upper elementary teacher in Sparks, Nevada.He is currently serving six Nevada counties as a STEM instructional coach. Brianblogs at isM y and on Twitter atçjb.

29 Visitor Comments

1jjJjjyMarch 15, 2013

What a perceptive and concise description of STEM, Brian! And you identify some realproblems that teachers and administrators constantly encounter. I particularlyresonate with this comment: “For this to work well in schools, however, we have tohave innovative thinking, teacher autonomy and flexibility in scheduling. Theseessential components of”going deep” with teaching and learning have been erodedaway in the last decade.”

Richard Ingersoll said, “A culture of increased accountability — good in theory, morequestionable in practice has made the classroom an ever-less appealing place towork. With a steady focus on testing, teachers have less discretion and less autonomyin their classrooms.”

So, assuming that teachers are adequately prepared and equipped to teach STEMcurriculum, the support structures (time, opportunity, discretion, flexibility) must bein place to make this truly effective. In the meantime, many of our subject-areateachers struggle along teaching S.T.E.M. instead of STEM.

Thanks for your insights! I’m checking out your blog next. Glad I’ve discovered you!

2.thncrsb March 18, 2013

Hi Anne — Thanks for the comment. I spent most of last week in Boston at anEngineering is Elementary training at the Science Museum. Many of the discussions,questions and comments during the week were around your last paragraph. 12 yearsof NCLB and other programs have left us with way too few educators with themindset, experience or will to fully engage with what must seem now as a radicalapproach.... even just to teach S.T.E.M.

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Stay in touch!:)

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3,Richard n March 19, 2013

Well, I’m not sure about what is really new with STEM. Right now 1 have 6 stations setup where my 9th grade Science students are calculating (math) speed, acceleration,mass, Force and such. They have to design the lab to incorporate various things thatcan effect Force (engineering), and the whole point of spending two classes is tounderstand Newton’s 2nd Law and it’s applications in society (Society).

I’ve done the same with chemical bonds (Science) — breaking and remaking themusing cooking (Society), where the students had to follow recipes and use the correctutensils, etc (engineering).

I could go on and on and on, but this is simply the way I have been teaching Sciencefor years. Every year changes as I learn what is new in Science, but overall mystudents have always done many, many hands-on labs. And, in many cases I just givethem the problem and have them figure out various solutions using trial, error andresearch.

Not sure what is really new in STEM.

Richard

on

iancrJ3y March 19, 2013

Hi Richard — You are correct STEM isn’t necessarily new ... but to many teachersthat have taught for less than 10 years or so, they may have never beenexposed to it, I think we could find others that have taught science the way youdescribe, especially at the high school level, but more and more science, socialstudies, art and other subjects have been narrowed out of the curriculum,especially at the elementary level. I have observed and spoken with middle andhigh school science teachers however that have been told to mostly read abouttheir subjects with an emphasis on how to use the parts of the textbook index,charts, graphs, captions and more, because students will be asked about thaton the reading test too. At many of our at risk schools only language arts andmath are to be taught — the other subjects can be read about, but no actualcontent is to be stressed. At several schools I know teachers were told thatwhen they signed on to teach in a litle 1 school” they gave up their right toteach anything but literacy and math.

So yes, STEM might not be new, but the fact that suddenly it is deemedimportant again is a step in the right direction.

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.1Richard Staron March 20, 2013

Brian — Another example of how we integrate disciplines: I received agrant this year — “Jamestown Meets RHAM” — a cross-disciplinary grant forArt, Social Studies and Science. In class we actually made glass whiletalking about molecular structure, structure of various materials, etc, inArt we made molds and then made the glass ornaments that were madeat Jamestown, the Social Studies students gave presentations to theScience students on the business ventures and such atJamestown, and agroup of us went to a glass blowing studio where we all made variousglass objects, received a great presentation on the history of glassblowing, and then toured a glass studio and met the artists.

B1W, I have been teaching only for 6 years — a wonderful second careerafter a long stint in iT.

Richard

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JB March 20, 2013

Incorporating various things is not engineering. That is the problem, changing avariable in an experiment is not engineering. Math and Science teachers needto realize that and learn to work with their buildings Technology & EngineeringEducation teachers to create true STEM related content that is cross curricular.You can not really have a cross-curricular STEM program until you stopforgetting about the T and E of the acronym.

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Richard Staron March 20, 2013

Agreed. We have students tackle “embedded tasks” — they are given boxesof parts without instructions and have to build a catapult, make a simpleroller coaster, design a lever system to launch a ping pong ball 12 feetthrough various size hula hoops, use a small battery powered electricmotor and various parts to get a ping pong ball through a room size mazewithout use of hands and other such challenges. I also have thecomputers available so that when they get frustrated they can sit downand do some research.

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However, I believe that not every activity has to completely involveSTEM students need the theoretical background material, and haveto be given the opportunity to fail and try again my 2 cents

Richard

iianCrsb March 20, 2013

HIjB, You are exactly right. Science is about asking questions andengineering is about defining problems. Science begins with a questionabout a phenomenon, such as ‘Why is the sky blue?” While engineeringbegins with a problem that needs to be solved, such as designing a newtransportation system. (Kind of paraphrased right from the K-12 scienceframework). Another shift that educators are going to have to wrap theirminds around if we are going to truly do STEM.

Jsabel March 19, 2013

Excellent article. I am a middle school STEM teacher, and I must say that is a programnew in Mexico but my students love it. Teaching strategies and excellent hands onactivities must be carefully applied according students’ learning styles In my case Iuse digital interactive presentations created by myself or taken from educational sitesworking as well with another area which is robotics. Thank you.

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5,i3iiri March 19, 2013

Very interesting. The key is transforming form the hard-wired ‘presentation’ pedagogyto one of the new design methodology. We have the components, just not the meansof comprehensive implementation. So long as we are skilled into skilled subject forcommon testing, this will prove impossible.So let’s keep pressing on both sides of the border..

yI’

ancrpy March 19, 2013

Yes Barry, how current testing fits here is key. I’m afraid no matter how muchemphasis and hoopla we see and hear about STEM, the current way we test and

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now evaluate teachers will cause many to continue or go right back tonarrowing the curriculum. It will be interesting!:)

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6.KaarinAverill March 19, 2013

You all may be interested in something we are doing in Michigan middle schools,small scale now but trying to spread the word. Working wfth an engineer, we havedesigned a way to teach middle and high school students how to do multiple variableanalysis to improve a product, or base design. Middle school students have tripledthe voltage output on their Kinex wind turbines, doubled the spin time of a woodentop and learned quadratics by designing a virtual roller coaster. To learn more aboutthis, visit http:Hwww.Q4ktoday.com We would love to talk to you if you are interestedin collaborating on a STEM project like these.

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Brian Crosby March 19, 2013

Hi Kaarin — Sounds like you are involved in some great projects! I don’t have myown classroom right now, but if a class I am working with is looking for acollaboration experience I’ll pass it on. I just got back from being trained in“Engineering is Elementary” in Boston. Seems like a promising curriculum beingdeveloped by a non-prom (Boston Museum of Science). You might be interestedin this from my own blog http://learningismessy.com/blogflp=1406 where Idescribe a windmill training we did with teachers, and here:http://learningismessy.com/blogflp=1427 where we did a family STEM nightwith hand held windmills at a local elementary.

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7Virginia Mahoney March 19, 2013

Glad to see that you made mention of ‘STEAM’. It is important to realize that artistichabits of mind are all-important in any endeavor that Involves creating. There aremany who feel that ‘STEM’ is not complete without the ‘A’... .to make it ‘STEAM’.Inclusion of the aesthetic requires yet another level of depth and thought to thedesign process. After all, even Max Planck understood the importance of artfulthinking “The scientist needs an artistically creative Imagination.”


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Couldn’t agree more Virginia, the arts are so much more important than toomany seem to realize. In addition, the “engineering” part of STEM is often veryartistic, both deliberately and not.

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Loe_Schwartz March 28, 2013

Virginia a misconception as well is that in adding the “A” to STEM is meant as apurely aesthetic addition. Where this is undervalued is that in any engineeredsolution to a problem, the ability for the benefactor (human, animal orotherwise) to be able to properly interface with the solution is paramount.

STEM is primarily results-based. Find a problem, solve it; find a question,answer it. STEAM is user-based. If students are expected to develop anengineered solution to a problem, or improve upon a design, it is importantthat design be involved and that’s where the “A” comes in.

A good analogy for this would be a World-War II era walkie-talkie vs. an iPhone;or Windows 8 vs. a DOS PC. The walkie-talkie and the DOS PC both usedtechnologies that are still in use today. But an iPhone has evolved into muchm an a basic radio transmitter and DOS is still the core of Windows 8. But

esigners ave taken the science and engineering behind the old technologiesiThTädthem more human-centered, more easily accessible. That is whatSTEAM has to offer.

We have some good STEAM links at our organization’s website at

Rpiy

8.Oscar Pedroso March 19, 2013

Brian,

I really enjoyed reading your article. As an ed-tech startup founder that focuses onSTEM, a lot of what you say here resonates with what we’re trying to do at GradFly,particularly STEM collaboration taking on new dimensions. We’re trying to do that viaportfolios and giving students various ways to learn from each other’s projects.Chemists talk to chemists, robotics to robotics, coders to coders, etc. And then weopen the door for colleges and companies to get involved.

I’d love to get in touch and tell you a little bit about how we’re trying to solve thatissue. Figured I had nothing to lose by reaching out.

Cheers!

Oscar

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9geeI March 19, 2013

Brian,I appreciate your post. I, too, am struggling to STEM ify our current Science MaterialsCenter, using science (as you say) as the hook to jump start uncoveringunderstanding in the STEM disciplines. The struggle now is how to break up the“traditional” schedule in the elementary schools where science has been pigeon-holed to 2 hours a week. We are attempting to break through the schedulingchallenge by suggesting a more holistic instructional approach. Who said you can’tuse non-fiction text during the “literacy block”? Let’s keep in touch, I will check outyour blog.

anCjQsb March 19, 2013

Hi Rob Yes that is a big part of this. Had a conversation today with teachers ata school that is in the early stages of becoming a STEM school, and they arestruggling with what that means. Some of us are trying to explain that often thereading and the math should be about the science and engineering pieces andthen the day should continue on doing the science and engineering involved —

some can’t let go of siloing the day into parts — reading, math, writing, science,social studies each getting their own chunk. STEM is not a separate subject.this is going to be one of the real sticking points if in the end the goal is to betruly doing STEM.

10flrineitiste March 20, 2013

Brian,

I really enjoyed reading this article. STEM is new to me but the idea or concept ofbroadening the teaching in the classroom is phnormanal. If every teacher/schooladministrator should adopt STEM at their school, I believe we’ll have a better worldtomorrow — for as it’s said “leaders tomorrow is dependant on how we educate ourstudents today” (President Obama September 16, 2010).

Further, in this technological age in which we live, educators/policy makers must viewour students as candles to be lit and not as empty bottles to be filled” Teaching toinclude a broader prospective will create more creative and critical thinking minds.Brian your article clearly highlights the changes that can happen if we adopt STEM inour schools,

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Brian Crosj2y March 20, 2013

Hi Hermione — I agree ... now how do we get those policy makers and otherstakeholders involved in a supportive way?

Rl

11StrailJsm.all March 20, 2013

I was wondering if anyone could recommend reading materials on STEM andconnected classrooms?


Hi Shaik — I’ve been reading “STEM Lesson Essentials — Integrating Science,Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics” byVasquez, Sneider and Corner,and found it to be a great resource. Hope that helps.

o


Shaik — here are some more suggestions. From PLP on connected learninghttp://shon.plpnetwork.com/booksl

And my book on Making Connections with Blogging:httL/www.isto rgLstoreLpioductJTh2292

RpiL

12.Kirsten McDonough March 22, 2013

Hi Brian,I am a 5th grade teacher of math and science. In my science classes we teach theEngineering Design Process and we use the Museum of Science program “Engineeringis Elementary”. So our science classes incorporate hands-on-science, withmeasurement, data, walking through the steps of the design process, connection to abranch of engineering, a related book that includes cultural connections, and awriting component.My question is about my math class, which is separate. How do I teach computation,

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geometry, fractions, decimals, and algebra, within the context of these hands-onscience and engineering activities?

Rnlv


Kristen — I think one key is to keep track of the data students collect as they dothe EiE activities (I just returned from a training there) as well as the scienceexperiments you perform. Obviously, at times you will use that data to exploreyour results right away, but if you also archive that data then as say you areteaching “mean” in math later on you have data your students have aconnection to to practice and explore that data in a way you might not haveinitially. Data should really be collected as metric (the math of science) and thatwill in turn bring in the decimals and even the fraction work you are looking for.I also have my students blogging and connecting in other ways with classroomsglobally, and if you share data, say over blogs, it is archived and that providesmore chances for your students to work with and compare data and results.Brian

Rpi

13.Kai Dung March 24, 2013

Brian,

I am not a teacher although I would love to be. But I am a career software developerand a Technology Evangelist particularly for under represented groups. I think youare right on point. Keep spreading the word and writing such informed and inspiredarticles.

Warmest Regards,Kai Dupe

14.Erika Gray April 6, 2013

I am currently working on my Masters of Arts in Teaching degree. I have a B.S. inbiology. I am quite excited about the STEM movement. It is very important thatstudents be able to integrate concepts from other subjects to truly understand topics.I see too many students today that do not know how to do this, and it is quitedisheartening.

pjy

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15.Whitley Byrd April 7, 2013

Mr. Crosby,I have been following your blog through my EDM31O class at the University of SouthAlabama and I have thoroughly enjoyed so many of your posts and even this oneabout STEM learning is a great one. Thanks for all that you do, I have learned somuch just from simply reading your blog and posts. Thanks again,Wh itley

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